Family LANIIDZ. 
Genus LANIUS. 
Lanius, Linneus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 135 (1766). 
Enneoctonus apud Boie, Isis, 1826, p. 973. 
Collurio apud Kaup, Natiirl. Syst. p. 40 (1829). 
Phoneus apud Kaup, op. cit. p. 33 (1829). 
Collyrio apud Sykes, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1852, p. 86. 
Otomela apud Bonaparte, Rev. Zool. 1853, p. 437. 
Leucometopon apud Bonaparte, tom. cit. p. 438. 
Tue Shrikes are certainly not very distantly allied to the Flycatchers, though some authors have 
placed them close to the Crows: Degland and Gerbe, for instance, place the Laniide between 
the Corvide and the Sturnide, where, so far as I can judge, they are quite out of place; and I 
have followed most of the later authorities in assigning them a position close to the Muscicapide, 
separated from that family only by the Ampelide, to which they are also very closely related. 
The Shrikes inhabit the Palearctic, Ethiopian, Oriental, and Nearctic Regions. Nine 
species are found within the limits of the Western Palearctic Region, eight of which breed 
there and are by no means uncommon within that region ; but the ninth, Lanius tsabellinus, is 
a rare visitant from the Eastern Palearctic Region. 
The Shrikes are strong, powerful birds, well able to defend themselves against even the 
larger birds of prey; and they frequently attack, kill, and devour smaller birds and mice, feeding 
also on frogs, lizards, and large insects. ‘They are peculiar in their habit of spitting their prey 
on thorns, or fixing it in the fork of a branch, from which they have obtained the name of 
Butcherbirds. 
Although their usual note is not musital or pleasing, they possess the power of mimicry 
to a considerable degree, and are able to modulate their voice to a great extent, and to imitate 
the notes of several other species. They build open nests of twigs and plant-stems, lined with 
finer plants, hair, wool, or feathers, rather large for the size of the birds, but tolerably well 
constructed. They differ a good deal as regards the coloration of their eggs, the Grey Shrikes 
having eggs greenish or greyish white in colour blotched and spotted with purplish grey, wood- 
brown, and olivaceous, whereas the smaller Shrikes deposit white eggs tinged with greenish and 
blotched with lilac and olivaceous, or warm cream-coloured or salmon-coloured, marked with 
red and lilac blotches and spots. In some species the males and females resemble each other 
very closely, whereas in others the sexes are very dissimilar. 
Lanius excubitor, the type of the genus, has the bill short, thick, higher than broad at the 
base, upper mandible much hooked at the point and strongly toothed; nostrils basal, roundish, 
partially covered with bristly feathers directed forward; gape furnished with stiff bristles; wings 
moderate, broad, the first quill short, the second rather longer than the sixth, the third longest ; 
tail long, much rounded; legs moderately short, the tarsus covered in front with six large plates 
and three inferior scutellz; toes rather small, claws long, arched, laterally grooved, extremely 
acute, 
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